Institute says book teaches language, values (fwd)

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Institute says book teaches language, values
Sealaska linguist: children's book not like 'Dick and Jane'

December 24, 2004

By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/122404/loc_20041224005.shtml

When a Tlingit boy is rude to his mother and contemptuous of a piece of
salmon, it's an opportunity to teach respect.

A new illustrated book published by Sealaska Heritage Institute tells a
shortened version of an old story as a way to teach the Tlingit
language and Tlingit values to young children.

"Moldy End" is the first book produced by the institute under a grant to
create materials and lesson plans for school programs in which children
in kindergarten to second grade would be immersed in Tlingit language
and values.

They go hand in hand, the editors said.

In creating a culturally relevant curriculum, the institute asked how
the Tlingit culture would teach about salmon, said Keri Edwards, a
linguist and director of the language department.

"We think it would be done through a story," she said.

"When we look at the Tlingit philosophy of education," said David
Katzeek, one of the book's editors, "for us the classroom is not a
particular building or a particular place, but nature in its entirety.
That classroom includes seeing salmon returning every year."

If uncles or aunts, parents or grandparents saw a child throwing a rock
at a salmon, they would stop the child, he said.

"They would then take that as an opportunity to provide lessons on
values as they relate to respect - respecting what is created," Katzeek
said.

The short book serves as an icon, like a totem pole, that reveals its
meanings not all at once, Katzeek said.

"A long time ago they would carve totems to tell the story," he said.
"Now it's a transition to take stories from the totem and begin to be
like a scribe, to scribe out the story. We're not the story experts,
but the goal is to bring values to the young person."

Katzeek, Johnny Marks, Hans Chester, Nora Dauenhauer and Richard
Dauenhauer derived the story from a longer version, "The Salmon Boy
Legend," told in 1904. Lisa Teas, a student at Sitka High School,
illustrated the book.

The book comes with a CD on which Katzeek reads the text in Tlingit. The
book's pages include Tlingit and English text. "Moldy End" with the CD
sells for $25 and is available from the institute. The text can be
downloaded for free from the Web site www.sealaskaheritage.org.

Although it's an abbreviated version, and it's intended for young
children, the language isn't simple, Edwards said.

"It's not like Dick and Jane," she said, referring to the famous
elementary reading books. "But it's a first step in teaching it to
kids."

A teacher could refer to the longer version, which is on the institute's
Web site, for richer details, she said.

So far, with the institute in the last year of a $278,000 curriculum
grant from the U.S. Department of Education, no schools in Southeast
Alaska have a true Tlingit-language immersion program.

But the institute plans to be ready for the day.

It doesn't want to translate a Western curriculum into Tlingit.

"We're trying to create something that starts from the Native
perspective by consulting with the right people and keeping things
correct from the cultural standpoint," Edwards said.

At the same time, the curriculum should be teacher-friendly so that any
teacher can enrich their curriculum with Tlingit culture, said Nancy
Douglas, a curriculum specialist at the institute.

"It's a real challenging thing to try to merge two cultures," Katzeek
said. "One (culture) comes at it one way and the other from another
way. Striking a balance is important in being able to achieve it."

• Eric Fry can be reached at eric.fry at juneauempire.com.